Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund has selected three fund value-add managers for $170m (€156.9m) of commitments.
A $100m allocation to Blackstone Real Estate Partners VIII and $35m each into Almanac Realty Securities VII and Torchlight Debt Opportunity Fund V have been agreed. An RFP search was launched in January, with final recommendations to be made in May.
Blackstone is planning a $13bn capital raise for Partners VIII, a global opportunity fund investing in the US, Europe and Asia.
The fund will be investing in complex and large transactions in major property sectors.
Almanac Realty Investors is planning to raise $1bn for Securities VII, with no leverage on the fund.
The investment manager is looking to provide growth capital for public REITs and privately owned US real estate operating companies.
Investments are structured as either convertible debt or preferred equity.
Limited partners in Securities VII are projected to achieve a 12-14% net IRR from the fund, which will be investing in office, industrial, retail and apartments, as well as hotels and mixed-use projects and a mixture of for-rent residential and hotels.
Torchlight is raising capital to be invested in the commercial mortgage-backed securities market.
The manager will look to take advantage of maturing commercial real estate loans in the next several years.
Torchlight is planning on a $1bn capital raise for its fund, which is projected to achieve a 13-15% net IRR.
